Demands for greater efficiency, higher product quality, and improved quality of life on the part of farmers are driving the development of milking technology towards automated farming solutions.
A wide range of sensors have been developed for monitoring the various aspects of milking shed operation—from milk temperature, to milk flow rate, to milk volume in the vat. The data gathered from these sensors may be used to monitor the operation of a milking plant and ensure that the operation and processing meets established criteria.
Where criteria are not met, alarms may issue bringing the problem to a farmer's attention.
One of the issues faced in accurately determining whether alarm conditions are occurring lies in knowing the current stage of the milking process e.g. milking, washing or dormant. Without this information there is no context for the measurements obtained by the various sensors, and automated alarms may only be issued for a limited number of rudimentary conditions which exist at all stages of the milking.
A farmer involved in milking is typically occupied with stock management and various other tasks, and it is neither desirable nor reliable for the farmer to manually enter the current stage of the process into a user interface.
Some systems exist which integrate all components of a milking plant, including a manual controller which dictates when the milking process switches between stages of the milking process. Such systems only know the stage of milking through manual intervention and may adjust their alarms accordingly.
However, such systems typically can require replacement of particular components of a milking plant in order to function—and are rarely compatible with components manufactured by other parties.
Upgrading or replacing components of a milking plant in order to achieve this functionality may not be financially viable to some farmers. At the very least, it may restrict their options.
It would be advantageous to provide a way of determining the stage of the milking process which may be readily integrated with existing infrastructure.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art.
Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations thereof such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.